14-Year-Old Juilliard and Curtis Violist Hae Sue Lee to Perform with Moscow Ballet in Upper Darby


Hae Sue Lee first picked up the viola when she was eight. A year later, she was admitted into the Juilliard pre-college program at the age of nine. She’s won countless awards, including First Place in the New York International Music Competition, the Alex & Buono International String Competition, and most recently, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2014 Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition.

Now, Philly-area audiences will have a chance to see this young prodigy, who is currently a Curtis Institute student, perform at a one-time only concert with the Moscow Ballet in Upper Darby at the Tower Theater on December 6 during their Great Russian Nutcracker performance. The partnership with the Ballet company, called Musical Wunderkind, allows young prodigies, like Lee, to perform with world-class dance stars.

According to the Moscow Ballet, “The cross discipline program is a salute to talented young Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition winners across the country and is an unprecedented opportunity for aspiring musicians to perform live with award-winning and internationally touring ballerinas. This live performance experience develops young musicians’ interpretation skills in a way practice cannot and is a continuation in Moscow Ballet’s mission to provide art enrichment for the local communities in which it performs.”

Besides from their performance of the Nutcracker, Lee will accompany a Moscow Ballet Principal Ballerina in Saint Saen’s “Dying Swan,” a number that was deeply influential in the development of the death scene in the iconic ballet Swan Lake.

Tickets and more information can be found here.